Track overview
"Japan is a great track, it’s one of the historic circuits so it’s one of my favourites, it challenges the driver. It is the ultimate test of downforce on that track; the cars that have the best aero package generally win here. It’s just got a great configuration of corners, this is all high to medium speed corners so you don’t really set the car up for low speed".
The People
"The Japanese fans are great, they turn out in their thousands and are really passionate about cars and racing. We have great support for all the teams and it’s just a beautiful part of the world. I love spending time in Tokyo before going to Suzuka, get to go to the arcades, get to have some great Tepenyaki food, it is definitely a place I would suggest you go and experience as it is just so different to the West".
Track Play by Play
"You’re flat out on the last corner, out the chicane, flat out down to turn 1, on DRS usually, you come off the DRS but stay flat out all the way into turn 1 and then you have a lift once you are already committed to the corner.
This is a long sweeping righthander so you take the Apex at turn 1, come back out a little bit and touch the curb. You need a lot of front end for turn 1 and 2 to get yourself into 2 and get the car turned so you can unlock the dip a little bit, which helps.
The point in which you turn into turn 3 is really important as it dips right at the Apex. It’s really cool, like driving a Go Kart, you can throw the car to the left, then back to the right in turn 4, keeping up the minimum speed.
Different drivers approach these corners in different ways, each to their own, but you just try to get through there as fast as possible.
Some people attack turn 4 less and go faster through 5; I generally tend to attack turn 3 and 4 and sacrifice turn 5 to get a better turn 6. Going uphill as you go into turn 6, a long and sweeping corner, you are hugging the Apex, keeping the minimum speed up and it’s important that when you get the exit you only come half way out to the middle of the track to get back as far to the right as possible for turn 7 and 8.
Flat out uphill where you use KERS, it’s very difficult to see the track on this section as you are looking to the left but the track is cambered off to the right and it’s going uphill so you can’t see much of the exit.
It gets quite tricky on turn 9, the track dips down quickly at the Apex so you don’t brake too much at that corner, you shift down one gear, the car’s bottoming and there isn’t much of an escape route if you mess this up... so it is important to carry the speed through, but then you’re braking straight away for turn 10.
This is where a lot of people crash, I have in the past, if you miss the braking point you can’t stop the car and there is no run off area. It’s a pretty cool corner. You brake a little bit earlier but then to carry more speed through there you are back on the power and KERS a little bit, flat out all the way, flat out through 11 and then braking as much as you can towards the Apex. Not so much in a straight line but towards the Apex of turn 12. It’s very low grip when you get to that corner. You are working with a car that has a medium to high speed downforce setting, so the low speed struggles a bit.
Struggle with a bit of understeer, get on the power, get the exit, KERSing until you have to look at the dashboard to see how much you are KERSing and then power through the next long righthander which is pretty easy. Get back to the right hand side, there are no braking point signs so you have to look to the ground for the braking point. You’re carrying tonnes of speed through 13 but then the car generally tends to understeer so you have to watch that you don’t run too wide. Then you lift early into 14 so you get the power nice and early and get a really long good exit.
You are KERSing on that corner, flat out down the straight, very easy through 15; R180 or something like that. You just gotta choose your turning point as well as you can. Turning nice and smoothly, you are just trying to go through there with as little turning as possible to reduce the amount of speed you squabble. Then braking as late as you can, the famous chicane where Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost crashed. You’re braking as late as possible. Some drivers use the curbs, but the curbs are quite big. Generally you try to set the car up quite stiff for this track; the stiffer you have the car wide height wise, the more consistent your aero balance is. But then stiffness can also be a negative as the car slides more, so it’s about trying to find a compromise or a balance. Braking, again you don’t want to go wide on the entry of the first part of the chicane you want to stay to the right and get a really good exit out of the last corner.
Brakes don't really struggle here, it's a light braking circuit. Overtaking is very, very difficult. You can follow down the back straight through and then follow through the chicane and overtake into turn 1. That's the best place to overtake here and the easiest".
-Lewis Hamilton, 2013